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SXSW review: The Soft Pack
The Soft Pack (formerly The Muslims) are a four piece garage band from San Diego. Wearing collared shirts and khakis during their 9:30 set at Stubb’s Thursday, it seemed as if they fancied themselves a kind of Vampire Weekend for a garage rock crowd. The band revolved between jumpy punk tunes and slightly more accessible (radio friendly?) pop numbers, with lead singer/guitarist Matt Lamkin jumping and dancing his way around the stage for most of the set.
A lot of the band seemed more at home with the harder, faster numbers. “Come On” worked well, with Lamkin spitting out the lyrics “your town could be the next big thing,” with Matty McLoughlin holding down the guitar part. The more polished “Extinction” and “Mexico,” on the other hand, lacked energy. Perhaps it was because the band’s on-stage persona just seemed a little too nice, even when they were trying to be snarky about SXSW and the music industry, didn’t match the feel of the music. Toward the end of the set things improved, especially when McLoughlin announced that they had found out prior to the show that their album had hit number one in the UK. That piece of information gave closer “Answer to Yourself” a bit more power than the rest of the set.
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